Minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Nasser Bourita, said Wednesday in Washington that Morocco has adopted, under the enlightened leadership of HM King Mohammed VI, Commander of the Faithful, a "unique" and "recognized" approach to fight and prevent radicalization and violent extremism.
"This approach is based on a series of measures that have demonstrated their efficiency," the minister pointed out at the second ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, which took place in the presence of US President Donald Trump.
The Moroccan strategy is threefold, as it focuses on training religious preachers at the Mohammed VI Institute for the Training of Imams, Morchidines and Morchidates in order to spread Islam's authentic values and fight radical ideologies, countering extremist discourses through audio-visual media, social networks and Internet as well as preventing and fighting the spread of violent extremism in prisons while ensuring the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners through a specific program called "Mosalaha", the minister explained.
"In its capacity as Co-Chair of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), Morocco is resolutely committed to continuing to promote the importance of developing and building the civil society's capacities so that it can defend itself against the resurgence of ISIS or any other group that shares the same violent extremist schemes," Bourita said.
In this regard, the minister assured that Morocco's priority remains a better coordination with other multilateral platforms in order to encourage the implementation of the good practices developed by the GCTF against the emergence of threats linked to terrorism and violent extremism.
While highlighting the efforts that led to the decline of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the minister warned, however, that the threats of this jihadist group remain persistent in the region and worldwide as a result of the resilience of its fighters and supporters, whose number is around 20,000 in conflict areas.
He also warned against the emergence of an ISIS "brand", through affiliated groups in more than 25 countries around the world, a dozen of which are active in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as against the consolidated capacities of affiliated groups because of their ability to diversify their sources of income and redeploy their fighters.
ISIS was able to plan and carry out attacks around the world, including 286 attacks in 2017 alone, Bourita said, noting that this group used Internet and information and communication technologies to implement its terrorist schemes.